Prizes and bursaries

Background

This travelling fellowship is awarded from funds bequeathed by Margaret Mary Slack. This travelling fellowship is intended to encourage senior psychiatric trainees to broaden their academic knowledge and experience in a centre of excellence either in the UK or abroad.

Though not essential, candidates may wish to pursue a research study. Visits are expected to be no longer than two to four weeks.

Prize

£2,000

Frequency

Annually

Who can enter

Applicants must hold the MRCPsych and be on an approved higher training scheme

Where presented

The successful applicant is expected to present the
outcome of the award at the International Congress by submitting an abstract or symposium
proposal.

Rules

Applicants must work in the UK.

Applicants should submit an application letter addressed to the faculty Chair including the following by email:

The names of two referees

A brief CV including research experience, publications/presentations, career aims.

A detailed proposal (no word limit, but as a guide we suggest 2 pages), which should include the following:

Clear academic aims and objectives and how they will be met if you are awarded this fellowship

Any potential pitfalls and contingency plans

How the proposed study / experience was developed

Proposed outputs or dissemination from this experience

Information about the host centre, with confirmation that the proposal is acceptable to them

An identified supervisor at the host centre

Confirmation from the employing authority that study leave will be granted if the applicant is successful.

A panel of psychiatry assessors nominated by the Chair will award the fellowship.

It is not possible to provide detailed feedback to unsuccessful applicants.

The successful candidate will be expected to submit a report to the Chair.

Closing date

Background

This prize is named after psychiatrist Duncan Macmillan who helped pioneer a community-centred approach to mental health. The competition is held in partnership with the Institute of Mental Health in Nottingham.

The purpose of the prize is to celebrate and promote the work of psychiatry trainees nationwide.

Prize

A £500 first place prize, £250 runner up prize are both available to be claimed as research-related expenses.

How often

Every year

Who can enter

Competition entry criteria is limited to registered trainee doctors in psychiatry in the UK.

Rules

The winner and runner up will be determined by a panel chaired by the Institute’s Director, Professor Martin Orrell and other senior members, along with representatives nominated by RCPsych

Decisions made by the panel are final.

Closing date

The closing date was 12 noon, Monday 1 October 2018.

2018 winners announced

The Institute of Mental Health and the Royal College of Psychiatrists are pleased to announce this year’s winners of the Duncan Macmillan essay writing competition. The competition asked psychiatry trainees to share their ideas on “The next big thing in psychiatry”.

Andrew Shepherd (University of Manchester) won first prize for his essay “Recognising the importance of group and social dynamics in recovery focussed practices”. The essay argued that by recognising mental health recovery as a social or group process, rather than an individual one, this has implications for the way in which mental health research, care and support are delivered.

Dr Karyn Ayre (Kings College London/ South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust) was awarded second prize for her essay “The future of psychiatry research” which argued for new digital methodologies to be used in psychiatry research in order to improve the links between research data and the lived experience of people with mental health problems.

“The quality of submissions for the competition this year was very high making choosing an overall winner a very difficult decision. Andrew and Karyn both chose engaging topics that were well presented and argued. I, on behalf of the Royal College of Psychiatrists Academic Faculty Executive Committee, would like to take this opportunity to congratulate both winners, and to thank all the other entrants for taking part.” Dr James Stone, Member of the Academic Faculty's Executive Committee.

The aim of the Gatsby Foundation RCPsych fellowship scheme supported by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation is to support those trainee psychiatrists/psychiatrists working within the UK who have been involved in developing and/or implementing the aims of the RCPsych Neuroscience Project into clinical training to attend the BNA Festival 2019.

Attending the festival will allow successful applicants to hear from and engage with world-leading preclinical and clinical neuroscientists working in a wide range of areas of relevance to psychiatry. We hope it will help enhance local and national networks and initiatives to improve neuroscience teaching and training for psychiatrists. By attending, the successful applicants will also raise the profile of psychiatry within the neuroscientific community.

The application process will be competitive.

At the meeting, successful applicants will meet with BNA Council members, support activities of RCPsych Neuroscience Project and be expected to engage with other attendees to promote psychiatry within the Neuroscience community.

Successful applicants will be expected to write up their attendance and experience for RCPsych and BNA websites, blogs, magazines etc. They will be informed that a measure of the success of the scheme will be initiation of new and/or development of current neuroscience training events by fellowship recipients across the UK for trainee psychiatrists, to develop greater links between local basic neuroscientist and psychiatrists, joint meetings on relevant themes for both audiences

Award: 12 awards, each up to £1,000 to cover registration, travel and accommodation.

The College will pay registration fees to the BNA directly. Successful applicants should book their own travel and accommodation and claim it back within 4 weeks of the conference. An expense form with the relevant details will be sent out to successful applicants.